Early double monasteries; a paper read before the Heretics' society on December 6th, 1914

EARLY
DOUBLE MONASTERIES

A Paper read before the Heretics' Society
on December 6th. 1914

BY

CONSTANCE STONEY

NEWNHAM COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

Cambridge :

DEIGHTON; BELL & CO., LIMITED.

London :

G. BELL & SONS, LIMITED.

1915

9eMils7eafiytfouDlerr^

EARLY
DOUBLE MONASTERIES

A Paper read before the Heretics* Society
on December 6th, 1914

BY

CONSTANCE STONEY

NEWNHAM COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

• ,♦ • «>

Cambridgk :

DEIGHTON, BELL & CO., LIMITED.

London :

G. BELL & SONS, LIMITED.

1915

EARLY
DOUBLE MONASTERIES.

' I 'HE system of double monasteries, or mon-
* asteries for both men and women, is as old as
that of Christian monasticism itself, though the
phrase " monasteria duplicia " ^ dates from about
the C6. The term was also sometimes applied to
twin monasteries for men ; Bede uses it in this
sense with reference to Wearmouth and Yarrow,
while he generally speaks of a double monastery as
'* monasterium virginum."

The use of the word ** double " is important.
The monastery was not mixed ; men and women
did not live or work together, and in many cases
did not use the same Church ; and though the
chief feature of the system was association, there
was in reality very little, when compared with the
amount of separation. In time, the details of
organisation varied, such, for example, as whether
an abbot or an abbess ruled the whole monastery,
though it was generally the latter. Details of the
rule of the community naturally altered at different
times and in different places, but the essential
character remained the same.

^ " Monasteria duplicia ut appellantur." Corp. Jur. Civ.
(Krueger) Codex L iii, 43.

4 .. :EAIlI^Y*I)pUBLE' MONASTERIES

As to the object of such an arrangement, opinions
differ. Some have regarded it as a sort of moral
experiment ; others have seen in it only the natural
outcome of the necessity for having priests close at
hand to celebrate Mass, hear confessions and
minister in general to the spiritual needs of the
nuns. There is, too, the practical side of the plan —
namely, that each side of the community was
economically dependant on the other, as will be
seen later. However this may be, the practice of
placing the two together under one head seems to
be as ancient as monasticism itself.

The double monastery in its simplest form was
that organisation said to have been founded in the
C4 by S. Pachomius, ^ an Egyptian monk. He
settled with a number of men, who had consecrated
themselves to the spiritual life, at Tabenna, by the
side of the Nile. About the same time, his sister
^lary went to the opposite bank of the Nile, and
began to gather round her women disciples.

This settlement soon became a proper nunnery
under the control of the superior of the monks,
who delegated elderly men to care for its discipline
With the exception of regulations concerning dress,
both monks and nuns observed the same rule
which S. Pachomius wrote for them^ It was very

1 Vita Pachom. Migne Pat. Lat. torn 73, cap. 28., col. 248.
Paris, 1849.

* Regula S. Pachomii. Gallandius Bib, Vet. Pat., torn. 4. p.
718. Venice, 1765.

EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES 5

simple. There were to be twelve prayers said
during the day, twelve at twilight, twelve at night,
and a psalm at each meal. Mass was celebrated on
Saturday and Sunday Meals were to be eaten
all together and the amount of food was unlimited.
A monk could eat or fast as he pleased, but the
more he ate, the more work must he do. They
were to sleep three in a cell. No formal vows were
to be taken, but the period of probation before
entry into the community, was to be three years.
The men provided the food, and did the rough
work for the women, building their dwellings, etc.,
while the women made clothes for the men. When
a nun died her companions brought her body to the
river bank and then retired ; presently some monks
fetched away the body, rowed back across the Nile,
and buried it in their cemetery.^

That the communities of S. Basil and his sister
Macrina (also in the C4) were of this type, may be
seen from the rule of S. Basil. The communities,
like those of Pachomius, were on opposite banks of
a river — in this case, the Iris ; and Macrina's
nunnery is supposed to have been in the village of
Annesi, near Neo-Caesstrea, and founded 357 a.d.
In her nunnery, lived her mother and her younger
brother Peter, who afterwards became a priest.
The life of this saintly family and the relation
between the two communities may be learned from

^ Vita Pachom. Migne's Pat. Lat., torn 73, cap. 28, col. 248.
Paris, 1849.

6 EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

the charmingly written Life of S. Macrina by her
brother Gregory of Nyssa.^

The Rule of S. Basil is written in the form of
question and answer, and much of it refers to the
relations between monks and nuns, while all impress
upon the religious the duty of giving no occasion
to the enemy to blaspheme. '* May the head of
the monastery speak often with the abbess ? May
he speak with any of the sisters other than the
abbess, on matters of faith ? May the abbess be
angry if a priest orders the sisters to do anything
without her knowledge ? If a sister refuses to sing
the psalms, is she to be compelled to do so ? " All
the answers urge both parts of the community to
avoid giving ground for scandal. The nuns, in
this case, seem to have had a separate church, for
Gregory speaks of the " Chorus of Virgins " who
awaited him when he came to visit his sister
Macrina on her death bed. There were, too,
schools for boys and girls attached to S. Basil's
house, for he makes regulations concerning their
education.

There is practically no evidence for double
monasteries in the C5, but at the opening of the
C6 we find them again. In the West the earliest
monastic communities had been founded by S.
Martin of Tours, first at Milan in 371 and after-

1 Lives of Women Saints. Translated by an early author
(unknown) probably 16 10-16 15. Edited by C. Horstmann
(E.E.T.S.), 1886.

EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES 7

wards in Gaul, which from then became the chief
monastic centre.

It is here, then, that another brother and sister
figure as the founders of a double monastery. S^
Caesarius, Bishop of Arles,^ persuaded his sister
Caesaria to leave Marseilles, where she was in a
convent, and join him at Aries to preside over the
women who had gathered there to live under his
guidance ; and the rule which he afterwards wrote
for these nuns is the first Western rule for nuns,
and was afterwards followed in many double
monasteries. ^ He arranged it, as he himself says,
according to the teachings of the fathers of the
Church, He stipulates that all joining the com-
munity shall, on their entry, renounce all claims
to outside property. Only those women are to
enter who accept the rule of their own accord and
are prepared to live in perfect equality and without
servants. Much attention is paid in the rule to the
instruction of the nuns ; they were to devote con-
siderable time to music, as being an art through
which God could fittingly be praised ; to be taught
reading and writing; to practice cooking, and
weaving both of Church vestments and their own
clothing.

They were to attend to the sick and infirm, and

1 Migne, Pat. Lat., Tom. 67, Col. looi.

^ Bateson, Mary, " Origin and Early History of Double
Monasteries." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
Vol. XIII., p. 141.

^ EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

above all they were not to quarrel. They were not
entirely cut off from the outside world, since they
were permitted to entertain women from other
convents ; but, says the Rule ** Dinners and enter-
tainments shall not be provided for churchmen,
laymen and friends.'* We have only indirect
evidence that Aries was a double monastery. The
confusion, for example in Caesarius's will between
his two foundations of S. John's and S. Mary's,
resolves itself, if we suppose that the monks were at
the one, and the nuns at the other, and that they
associated in the great church in the monastery,
described by the authors of the Life of S. Caesarius,
as being dedicated to S. Mary, S. John and S.
Martin.^ Such an arrangement was common in
later double monasteries.

Another famous C6 monastery in Gaul now
supposed to have been double was that of S.
Rhadagund at Poitiers about 566.^ S. Rhadagund
was married to King Clothair against her will, and
their life together was a series of quarrels. She
was so devoted to charitable work, we are told, that
she often annoyed the King by keeping him waiting
at meals, left him whenever possibl^ and behaved
in such a way that the king declared that he was
marred to a nun rather than a queen. Finally the
murder of her young brother, at the instigation of
the king, determined her to leave the court, and

^ Bateson, Mary, op. cit., p. 143.

* Gregorius Turon, Hist. Franc, TJb. 3., cap. 7.

EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES 9

flying to the protection of Bishop Medardus, she
demanded to be consecrated a nun.^

After some natural hesitation on the part of the
Bishop, she was made a Deaconness — a term
applying to anyone who, without belonging to any
special order, was under the protection of the
Church.^ She devoted herself to the relief of every
kind of distress, bodily and spiritual ; and at length
the desire came to her to provide permanently for
the men and women who came to her for help. So,
on an estate whiah she owned at Poitiers, she
founded a nunnery dedicated to the Holy Name,
and, probably at the same time, the house for men,
separated from the convent by the town wall and
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was in
S. Mary's that Rhadagund was buried and after
her death, her name was added to the dedication.
Beside this evidence of association between the two
houses, the only other is the correspondence of
Rhadagund and the Abbess Agnes with the poet
Fortunatus, who was probably a monk of S. Mary's,
He certainly seems to have been the director and
and counsellor of the nuns, and to have been often
engaged in business for them ; but he did not live
in the same house with them for in one of his letters
he laments the fact. His letters and verses
addressed to the two women throw a strong light

^ Nisard, Viede Fortunat, chap. 52. Paris, 1887.
' Eckenstein, Lina, Woman under Monasticism. Page 54.
Cambridge, 1896.

lo EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

on the friendship, and real affection which existed
amQng the three friends. He says that he will work
day and night for Rhadagund, draw the water, tend
the vines and the garden, cook, wash dishes, any-
thing, rather than that she should do the heavy and
menial work of the house. He begs the abbess
Agnes to talk often of him with the sisters that he
may feel more really that she is his mother. He
sends gifts of flowers for their sanctuary, and
baskets which he has plaited ; and with a basket
of violets he sends the following charming verses.^
(I give a translation which must necessarily be
inadequate.)

" If the season had yielded me white lilies,
according to its wont, or red roses with sweet
smelling savour, I had plucked them from the
country side, or from the turf of my little garden,
and had sent them, small gifts for great ladies !
But since I lack the first, I e'en pay the second, for

^ Tempora si solito mihi Candida lilia ferrent
Aut speciosa foret suave rubore rosa,
Haec ego rure legens aut caespite pauperis horti
Misissem magnis munera parva libens ;
Sed quia prima mihi desunt, vel solvo secunda,
Profert qui violas, fert et amore rosas.
Inter odoriferas tamen has quas misimus herbas
Purpureae violae nobile germen habent,
Respirant pariter regali murice tinctae
Et saturat foliis hinc odor, inde decor.
Hae quod utrumque gerunt pariter habeatis utraque
Et sit mercis odor flore perenne decus.
(Nisard. Poesies de Fortunat. Lib. 8., vi. Paris. 1887.)

EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES ii

he presents roses in the eyes of love, who offers
only violets. Yet, these violets I send are, among
perfumed herbs, of noble stock, and with equal
grace breathe in their royal purple, while fragrance
with beauty vies to steep their petals. May you,
likewise, both have each charm that these possess,
and may the perfume of your future reward be a
glory that blooms everlastingly."

The nuns of Ste. Croix, too, seem not to have
been lacking in generosity. Fortunatus frequently
thanks them for gifts of eggs, fruit, milk, etc. ; and
on one occasion he receives more dishes than one
servant could carry. He must have stood in some
official relation to Rhadagund, for such freedom of
intercourse to be possible ; and if his verses some-
times suggest the courtier rather than the monk, it
must be remembered that they are the work of a
poet who had first been a friend of princes and was
among the most fashionable men of letters of his
day in Ravenna ; and that they are addressed to a
woman who was, after all, a queen.

In 587 Rhadagund died and Bishop Gregory of
Tours tells how greatly she was mourned by the
whole community, and how some 200 women
crowded round her bier, bewailing their loss. One
of them, the nun Baudonivia, several years after-
wards, cannot, she says, even speak of the death of
Rhadagund without being choked with sobs.^

It will be seen from these examples, that in all

^ Gregorius Turon, De Gloria Confessorum, cap. 106.

12 EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

probability, the origin of the double monastery
need not be sought, as has been supposed, in
Ireland, since it seems to have been known in
Gaul before S. Columbanus and his Irish disciples
landed there and preached a great religious
revival, at the end of the C6. Indeed, though
there are scattered notices in the lives of the Irish
saints, which seem to suggest that there were
double monasteries in Ireland in very early times,
there is no definite evidence until the description
in Cogitosus's " Life of S. Bridget," of one at
Kildare, probably in the C8. The monasteries
actually founded by S. Columbanus himself, were
all for men.

On the other hand, the double monastery seems
always to have flourished wherever the fervour of
the Irish missionaries penetrated. Perhaps, as
Montalembert ^ suggests, the ideal atmosphere of
divine simplicity and single-mindedness which
characterised them, was particularly favorable to
the growth of such an institution.

S. Columbanus dedicated Burgundofara, or
Fara, as a child, to the religious life ; and she
afterwards founded the monastery of Brie to the
south-east of Paris, which we learn from Jonas
who was a monk there, and from Bede, was a
double monastery.

It is clear that this house was one of those ruled
by an abbess, for Jonas says that no distinction

Moines d'Occident. Tom. V., cap. 4. Paris, 1867.

EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES 13

was recognised between the sexes, and that the
abbess treated both alike. The discipline here,
however, seems to have been very severe, for he
adds that some of the new nuns tried to escape by
ladders from the dormitory. Brie is interesting to
us as forming one of the links between Continental
and English monasticism at this time. Bede says
of the daughter of Erconberht, King of Kent,
" She was a most virtuous maiden, always serving
God in a monastery in France, built by a most
noble abbess, Fara by name, at a place called
Brie ; for at that time, but few monasteries being
built in the country of the Angles, many were
wont, for the sake of monastic conversation, to
repair to the monasteries of the Franks or Gauls ;
and they also sent their daughters there to be
educated and given to their Heavenly Bridegroom,
especially in the monasteries of Brie, Chelles, and
Andeiys."^

He adds that two daughters of King Anna of
East Anglia, " though strangers, were for their
virtue made abbesses of the monastery of Brie."

Little is known of Andelys, except that it was
founded by Queen Clotilda. At Chelles, founded
b}. Queen Bathilda in 662, ten miles from Paris,
on the river Marne, many famous persons, both
men and women, received their education. Among
them was a Northumbrian princess, Hereswith,

^ Bede, Hist. Eccles., Lib. III., cap. 8. Ed. C. Plummer.
Oxford, 1896.

14 EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

whose sister was Hild, the most famous of English
abbesses.

The prevalence and influence of the double
monastery in England may perhaps be better
understood by a reference to the position of
women generally in Anglo-Saxon society. Nothing
astonished the Romans more than the austere
chastity of the Germanic women, and the religious
respect paid by men to them, and nowhere has
their influence been more fully recognised or more
enduring than among the Anglo-Saxons. This
fact largely accounts for the extreme importance
attached by them to marriage alliances, par-
ticularly those between members of royal houses.^
These unions gave to the princess the office of
mediatrix ; in Beowulf she is called Freothowebbe,
*' the peace- weaver." '-^ From this rose the high
position held by queens. Their signatures appear
in acts of foundation, decrees of councils, charters,
etc. Sometimes they reigned with full royal
authority, as did Seaxburg, Queen of the West
Saxons, after the death of her husband.^ From
the beginning of Christianity in England, the
women, and particularly these royal women, were as
active and persevering in furthering the Faith, as
their men. '* Christianity," says Montalembert,*

^ This applies to the Germanic peoples generally.

* Line 1942. Ed. F. Holthausen. Heidelberg, 1906.

* Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under 672. Ed. C. Plummer. 1892
^ Moines d'Occident. Tom. 5, page 241. Paris, i860.

EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES 15

** came to a people which had preserved the
instinct and sense of the necessity for venerating
things above," and ** they at least honoured the
virtue which they did not themselves always
practise."

Consequently, when the young Anglo-Saxon
women, having been initiated into the life of the
cloister abroad, returned to England to found
monasteries in their own land, they were received
by their countrymen with reverence and respect.
This respect soon expressed itself in the national
law, which placed under the safeguard of severe
penalties the honour and freedom of those whom
it called the " Brides of God."

Princesses, royal widows, sometimes reignmg
queens, began to found monasteries, where they
lived on terms of equality with the daughters of
ceorls and bondmen ; and perhaps it is fair to say
that it was not the lowest in rank who made the
greatest sacrifice.

But the influence of these women did not cease
with their retirement to the cloister. When one
of them, by the choice of her companions, or the
nomination of the bishops, became invested with
the right of governing the community, she was also
given the liberties and privileges of the highest
rank. Abbesses often had the retinue and state of
princesses. They were present at most great
religious and national gatherings, and often

■^

l6 EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

affixed their signatures to the charters granted on
these occasions.^

I have already referred to one of the greatest of
these abbesses, Hild of Whitby. She was the
grand niece of Edwin, the first Christian King of
Northumbria and had been baptised with her uncle
at York in 627 by the Roman Missionary Paulinus.^
Bede says that, before consecrating her life to,
religion, ** she had lived thirty-three years very/
nobly among her family." When she realised het
vocation, she went into East Anglia where her
brother-in-law was king, intending to cross over to
the continent and take the veil at Chelles. vShe
spent a year here in preparation, but before she could
accomplish her purpose, Bishop Aidan invited her
to the north, to take charge of the double
monastery of Hartlepool, which had been founded
by Heiu, the first nun in England. ** When," says
Bede, ''she had for some years governed ihis
monastery, wholly intent upon establishing the
regular life, it happened that she also undertook
the construction or arrangement of a monastery in
the place which is called Streonesheal (Whitby),
and diligently accomplished the work enjoined
upon her. For in this monastery, as in the first,
she established the discipline of the regular life,

1 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, iii., 238. Abbesses Mildrith,

Aetheldrith, Aette, Wilnoth, Hereswyth, sign the privilege

granted to the churches and monasteries of Kent, by King
Wihtred, 696/716.

'Bede. Hist. Eccles., Lib. IV., cap. 23. (Cp. II. 14.) Ed.
C. Plummer. Oxford, 1896.

EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES 17

and indeed, she taught there also, justice, piety,
chastity, and other virtues, but especially the
guarding of peace and charity ; so that, after the
example of the primitive church, no one there was
rich and none poor, all things were common to all
and no one had property. So great was her
prudence, moreover, that not only ordinary persons
in their necessity, but even kings and princes
sought and received counsel of her. She made
those who were under her direction give so much
time to the reading of the Divine Scriptures, and
exercise themselves so much in the works of
righteousness, that many could readily be met with
there, who were fit to take up ecclesiastical office,
that is, the service of the altar." Bede goes on to
mention six men from Hild's monastery, who-
afterwards became bishops. The most famous
was perhaps S. John of Beverley, who was first
bishop of Hexham, and afterwards of York, and
who was noted for his piety and learning. Aetta
held the see of Dorchester for a time. Bosa,
another scholarly disciple of Hild, became Arch-
bishop of York, and Tatfrith was elected bishop
of the Hwicce, though he died before his
consecration.

None of these, however, have a greater claim
to be remembered than the cow-herd Caedmon,
the first English poet, and the story as given
by Bede is perhaps one of the most charming
in his Ecclesiastical History.^ Apart from the

* Lib. IV., cap. 24. Ed. C. Plummer. Oxford, 1896.

i8 EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

literary interest attaching to the story, his life
shows some of the details in outward organisation
of these great double monasteries. Before his
entry into the monastery, says Bede, he was
advanced in years, and yet had so little skill in
music that he was unable to take his turn at feasts
in singing and playing on the harp, an accomplish-
ment common to high and low among the Anglo-
Saxons and kindred nations.

The story is familiar : on one occasion when the
feast was over, he left the hall as soon as he saw
the harp being passed, according to custom, from
hand to hand. He went out to the cattle-sheds,
tended the beasts and lay down to sleep. In a
dream he heard a voice, ** Caedmon, sing me some-
thing." He answered, " I know not how to sing ; and
for this cause I came out from the feast and came
hither because I knew not how." Again he who spoke
with him said, " Nevertheless, thou canst sing me
something." Caedmon said *' What shall I sing ? "
He answered " Sing me the Creation." Then Bede
relates how the cow-herd sang songs before
unknown to him, in praise of ** the Creator, the
Glorious Father of men, who first created for the
sons of earth, the heaven for a roof, and then the
middle world as a floor for men, the Guardian of
the Heavenly Kingdom." When the abbess Hild
heard of the miracle, she instructed him m the
presence of many learned men to turn into verse
portion of the Scriptures. He took away his task

EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES 19

and brought it to them again " composed in the
choicest verse.'* Thereupon the abbess, says Bede
'* embracing and loving the gift of God in the man,
entreated him to leave the secular, and take upon
him the monastic life, and ordered him to be
instructed in sacred history." So he was received
into Whitby monastery with all his family ** and,"
continues the story, '' all that he could learn he
kept in memory, and like a clean beast chewing the
cud, he turned it all into the sweetest verse, so
pleasant to hear, that even his teachers wrote and
learned at his lips."

The story throws a good deal of light on the way
in which a large double monastery was organised.
One gathers from it that not only isolated monks
and nuns were received into the community but
sometimes whole families. Caedmon entered
** cum omnibus suis," which is generally taken to
mean that his whole family were received with him.
We see from it, too, how earnest was the desire of
the superiors of the monasteries to instruct the
ignorant ; how rich and poor alike in the C7 might
aspire to the monastic life, the only passport being
the honest desire to serve God in the best possible
way.

Again in the latter part of the story, dealing with
Caedmon's sickness and death, there is evidence
of how the aged, the sick and the dying were
tended with special care.

Whitby was not only an important religious but

20 EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

also political centre and the abbesses took by no
means a small part in controversy. At the Synod
of Whitby ^ held here in 664, when the respective
claims of Irish and Roman ecclesiastical discipline
were discussed, Hild took the side of the Irish
Church ; while her successor, Aelflsed interested
herself in the doings of her brother King Egfrith.
Hild reigned thirty years at Whitby and died after
many years of suffering, during which she never
failed to teach her flock, both in public and in
private. All that we know of her character, indi-
cates a strong and vivid personality, a mind keenly
alive to the necessities of the age, and a will
vigorous enough to be successful in providing for
them where opportunity occurred. She had a
worthy successor in Aelflsed, a friend of the holy S.
Cuthbert. Bede says of her that " she added to
the lustre of her princely birth the brighter glory
of exalted virtue," and that she was *' inspired
with much love toward Cuthbert, the holy man of
God. "2

On one occasion she had fallen seriously ill, and
expressed a wish that something belonging to S.
Cuthbert could be sent to her. '* For then," she
said, " I know I should soon be well." A linen
girdle was sent from the Saint, and the abbess joy-
fully put it on. The next morning she could stand

^ Bede. Hist. Eccles., Lib. IV., cap. 25,

^ Bede. Vita S. Cuthberhti, cap. 23. Ed. C. Plummer^
Oxford, 1896.

EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES 21

on her feet and the third day she was restored to
perfect health. Later, a nun was cured of a head-
ache by the same girdle, but when next it was
wanted, it could nowhere be found. Bade argues
quaintly that its disappearance was also an act of
Divine Providence, since some of the sick who
flocked to it might be unworthy, and, not being
cured, might doubt its efficacy, while in reality, their
own unworthiness was to blame. ** Thus," he con-
cludes, '* was all matter for detraction removed from
the malice of the unrighteous."

A contemporary of Hild's was Aebbe, a princess
of the rival dynasty of Bernicia, and sister of the
royal saint. King Oswald, and of Oswy, the reign-
ing king. Her brother intended to give her in
marriage to the king of the Scots, but she herself
was opposed to the alliance. Her family had
embraced the Christian religion in exile, and she
determined to follow the monastic life.

Accordingly, she built a doubt monastery, appar-
ently in imitation of Whitby, at Coldingham on
the promontory still called S. Abb's Head. She
does not seem, however, to have maintained, like
Hild, the discipline and fervour of which she
herself gave an example ; for Bede notes here a
rare example of those disorders of which there were
certainly far fewer in England at this time than
anywhere else.^ Aebbe was apparently in ignor-

1 Bed. Hist. Eccles., Lib. IV., cap. 25. Ed. C. Plummer.
Oxford, 1896.

22 EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

ance of the relaxation of discipline in her monastery
until she was warned of it by an Irish monk of her
community, named Adamnan.

As he was walking with the abbess through the
great and beautiful house which she had built, he
lamented with tears, '* All that you see here so
beautiful and so grand will soon be laid in ashes ! "
The astonished abbess begged an explanation. " I
have seen in a dream," said the monk, " an unknown
one who has revealed to me all the evil done in
this house and the punishment prepared for it."

And what, one naturally asks, are these crimes
for which nothing short of total destruction of the
splendid house is a severe enough visitation from
Heaven ? Adamnan continues " The unknown one
has told me that he visited each cell and each bed,
and found the monks, either wrapt in slothful sleep,
or awake, eating irregular meals and engaged in
senseless gossip ; while the nuns employ their
leisure in wearing garments of excessive fineness,
either to attire themselves, as if they were the
brides of men, or to bestow them on people outside."
One must admit that here and therein the writings
of the period, there are references to this worldli-
ness in some monasteries ; but whatever may have
been the state of things at a later date, there does
not seem to be evidence of graver misdeeds in these
early years of monasticism in England. Bede uses
perhaps unnecessary severity in speaking of
renegade monks and nuns so-called, since he is

EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES 23

admittedly speaking from hearsay and not about
disorders which came under his own observation.
Whatever the sins of Coldingham may have been,
the community at a later date atoned for them, for
in the Cg, when the Danes invaded Northumbria,
and killed the men of this monastery, among others,
the nuns are said to have mutilated their faces in
order to escape the marauders. The Danes, in
fury at the loss of their prey, burned the monastery
to the ground, and all that remains to mark the site
is a small ruined chapel.

At Ely there was also a double monastery
founded by Aethelthryth,^ later known as S.
Awdrey. She was the daughter of Anna, King of
the East Angles, and therefore a niece of the great
abbess Hild. She was married, for the second
time, probably for political reasons, when over
thirty years old to king Egfrith of Northumbria,
then a boy of fifteen. After living with him for
twelve years, she left him and went to Coldingham,
where she received the veil. Whether Egfrith
agreed to this or not, it is impossible to say.
There are reasons for believing that he was, at any
rate, unwilling ; for Bede says that she had long
requested the king to permit her to lay aside
worldly cares and serve God in a monastery and
that she at length, with great difficulty, prevailed.

She remained at Coldingham for a year and

^ Bede. Hist. Eccles., Lib. IV., cap. 19. Ed. C. Plummer.
Oxford, 1896.

24 EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

then went to Ely, the island in the fens given to her
by her first husband ; and there she built a
monastery, of which she became abbess.

She renounced all the splendours and even
ordinary comforts of her former royal life. Bede
says that from the time that she entered the
monastery, she wore no linen, but only woollen
garments, rarely washed in a hot bath, unless just
before any of the great festivals, such as Easter,
Whitsuntide, and the Epiphany ; and then she did
it last of all, after having, with the assistance of
those about her, first washed the other nuns.

After presiding over the monastery six or seven
years, she died of a tumour in her throat, which
she used to say was sent as a punishment for her
excessive love of wearing necklaces in her youth.
Hence the ** tawdrey lace " of ** The Winter's
Tale " and elsewhere, which was a necklace bought
at S. Awdrey's Fair, held on the day of her
festival, October 17th. She was succeeded by her
sister, Seaxburh, the widow of Erconberht, king of
Kent, who had founded a double monastery at
Sheppey, of which she was the first abbess. There
is no mention of monks as well as nuns before her
reign. Her daughter Ermengild succeeded her as
Abbess of Sheppey, and at her mother's death, of
Ely. Ermengild's daughter, Werburh (the famous
S. Werburh of Chester), also became abbess of
Sheppey and Ely in succession.

In the same way, Minster in Thanet remained

EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES 25

in the family of its foundress, Eormenburg or
Domneva, as she is sometimes called, the wife of
the Mercian prince Merewald. Accordmg to
tradition she received the land from Egbert of
Kent, as wergild for the murder of her two
brothers. She asked for as much land as her
tame deer could cover in one course, and she thus
obtained about ten thousand acres, on which she
built her monastery. Her daughter, Mildred, who
succeeded her as abbess, acquired greater fame.
She was educated at Chelles, and was there
cruelly ill-treated by the abbess, who was in-
appropriately named Wilcona, or Welcome. She
wished to marry Mildred to one of her relatives*
and when the girl refused, she put her into a
furnace. When that punishment failed, she pulled
her hair out. Mildred adorned her psalter with
the ravished hair and sent it to her m.other.
Finally she escaped and returned home. Her
name is among the five abbesses who signed a
charter granting church privileges at a Kentish
Witanagemot.^ Her successor, Eadburg, or
Bugga, built a splendid new church in the
monastery, which is described in a poem
attributed to Aldhelm.^ The high altar was hung
with tapestries of cloth of gold, and ornamented
with silver and precious stones. The chalice, too,
was of gold, and set with jewels ; there w^ere glass

1 Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, lii., 238.

' S. Aldhelmi opera. Migne Pat. Lat. Tom. 89, col. 289.

26 EAPLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

windows, and from the roof there hung a silver
censer. Mention is made of the united singing
of the monks and nuns in the church.

Eadburg and her mother, a certain Abbess
Eangyth, were both friends of Boniface, the great
Enghsh missionary bishop of Mainz, the *' Apostle
of Germany.'' Eangyth writes to him of her
troubles as abbess of a double monastery, of the
quarrels among the monks, the poverty of the
house, and the excessive dues which had to be paid
to the king and his officials. In one letter Boniface
thanks Eadburg for books and clothes, and asks if
she will write out for him in gold letters the
Epistles of S. Peter, that he may have the words
of the Apostle before his eyes when he preaches.

Repton was another double monastery under an
abbess, though nothing is known of its foundation.
Some information about it is gained from the Life
of S. Guthlac by Felix. Guthlac was a noble of
Mercia, and in his youth a great warrior ; but at
the age of twenty-four, he went to Repton and
received the tonsure under the abbess Aelfthryth.
Her rule was apparently very strict, for we find
Guthlac getting into trouble for breaking a rule by
not drinking wine.

Several chapters in Bede's Ecclesiastical
History are devoted to stories of the double
monastery at Barking, which was one of the most
famous. It was founded by Erconwald, who after-
wards became bishop of London. He built one for

EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES 27

himself at Chertsey, and one for his sister
Aethelburg at Barking, and, as Bede says, " estab-
Hshed them both in regular discipline of the best
kind." This monastery included both a hospital
and a school, under the energetic rule of its first
abbess.

Hildelith succeeded Aethelburg, and it was for
her and her companions that the scholar Aldhelm,
bishop of Sherborne, wrote his work, " De
Laudibus Virginitatis." ^ He speaks of the
nunnery as a hive where the nuns work like little
bees, for they collect everywhere material for
study. Their industry is not confined to the study
of Holy Scripture. He speaks of them as searching
carefully into the writers of history, as having a
knowledge of ancient law and chronography, and
in writing, of the rules cf grammar and ortho-
graphy, punctuation, metre, together with the use
of allegory and tropology ; all of which goes to
prove that the field of secular knowledge was not
particularly limited for nuns in those days.
Aldhelm enlarges on the charms of their peaceful
life in the nunnery, and the opportunities for
thought and study it affords them. He recom-
mends the works of Cassian and Gregory for their
reading, and warns them against pride, a special
temptation to those who have adopted the religious
life.

Again there comes the warning against worldli-
ness in both monk and nun. Some of the men, he
says, contrary to the rule of the regular life, wear

^ S. Aldhelmi opera. Migne. Pat. Lat. Tom. 89, cols. 103-162

28 EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

gay clothing. *' The appearance of the other sex,
too, corresponds : a vest of fine linen of hyacinth
blue is worn, and above it a scarlet tunic with
hood and sleeves of striped silk ; on the feet are
little shoes of red leather ; the locks on the
forehead and temples are waved with a curling-
iron ; the dark grey head-veil has given place to
white and coloured head-dresses, the folds of
which are kept in place by fillets and reach right
down to the feet ; the nails are pared to resemble
the talons of a falcon/' Aldhelm condemns all
this, but hastens to add that of course he is
addressing no one in particular. The work closes
with an affectionate greeting to those whom he
calls the Flowers of the Church, Pearls of Christ,
his monastic sisters and scholarly pupils, whose
prayers he always desires.

In Wessex the double monastery of Wimborne
was the most important of its time, and most
famed for its literary activity. According to the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle^ it was founded by Cuth-
burg, sister of Ine, king of Wessex. Most of our
knowledge of the community comes from the Life
of S. Lioba^ ('the beloved'), who was educated
there during the reign of the Abbess Tetta,
another sister of the royal founder. The author of
S. Lioba's Life describes the arrangement at
Wimborne. He says that there were two monas-
teries there, one for clerks and the other for

1 Under 718.

» By Rudolf of Fulda, a monk. He wrote about 836. A. SS.
Boll., Sept. 28.

EARLY DOUBTE MONASTERIES 29

women. The two houses were surrounded by
high walls and the monastery was well endowed.
No nun could obtain permission to go to the
monks' house, and no man might enter the nuns'
convent, except the priests who came to celebrate
in their church. One gathers from this that there
was not a common church for both sides of the
community, as was often the case. The abbess
gave any necessary orders to the monks through a
window. No woman was admitted to the com-
munity unless she undertook not to attempt to
leave it except for very urgent reasons and by
permission of the abbess.

Some idea of its size may be gathered from the
fact that there were five hundred nuns at
Wimborne, That strength and tact were needed
to rule them is shown by one amusing if lamentable
episode.

A very religious virgin was placed in authority
over the novices, and she was so hated by them on
account of her severity that even after her death
the young nuns could not forget ; and rushing out,
they trampled upon her grave, with curses, until
the mound became a hole half a foot deep. The
abbess Tetta rebuked them for their unchristian
behaviour, and ordered a three days' fast and
penance, after which the culprits apparently
recovered their senses.

Lioba herself seems to have had an attractive
personality, and to have gained the affection both
of the abbess and the other nuns. A little letter
of hers is extant, wherein she writes to Boniface
recalling herself to his mind and claiming relation-

30 EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

ship with him through her mother. She also
encloses some Latin verse for his criticism. She
says, '' This too, I ask, that you will correct the
mistakes of this letter, and send me a few words as
a proof of your goodwill. I have composed the
little verses written below, according to the rules
of prosody, not from pride, but from a desire to
cultivate the beginnings of a slender genius, and
because [ wanted your help. I learnt the art from
Eadburga, my mistress, who devotes herself
unceasingly to searching Divine Law."

When Boniface was establishing religious houses
in Germany he sent to Abbess Tetta, asking that
Lioba might be allowed to come over and help
him. She went, and Boniface put the monastery
of Bischofsheim on the Tauber, a tributary of the
Main, under her care. Here she carried on the
traditions of Wimborne, for she taught and
encouraged learning in every way. Her rule was
sane and wise. Her biographer says of her, ^* She
was careful always not to teach others what she
herself did not practise. Neither conceit nor
overbearing found any place in her disposition ;
but she was gentle and kind to everyone without
exception. She was beautiful as an angel and her
conversation was charming. Her intellect was
renowned, and she was able in counsel. She was
catholic in faith, most patient in hope, and of
widespread charity. Though her face was always
cheerful, she never broke into hilarious laughter.
No one ever heard an ill-natured remark fall from
her lips, and the sun never went down upon her
wrath. Though she provided food and drink with

EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES 31

the greatest liberality for others, she was very
moderate herself; and the cup from which she
used to drink was called by the sisters, on account
of its size, ' darling's little mug.' "

She knew that a heedful mind is necessary for
both prayer and study, and so she insisted upon
moderation in holding vigils. She allowed herself,
and the sisters under her, a short rest after dinner,
especially in the summer time ; and would never
willingly allow people to stay up late ; for she
maintained that loss of sleep meant loss of in-
telligence, especially in reading. Her methods
were undoubtedly successful, for Rudolph says
that among the other convents for women in
Germany, there was scarcely one which had not
teachers trained under Lioba, so eagerly sought
after were her pupils.

Here this account of some early double
monasteries must end. In England they pro-
bably existed right up to the Danish invasions
of 870, and disappeared in the general devas-
tation of the country during the succeeding
years. The organisation, however, appears again
in this country in the C12, and even as late
as the C15. The order of S. Gilbert of Sem-
pringham in the C12 was a double one, and
the only order which actually had birth in
England. It was, however, entirely lacking in that
intellectual activity which was a special feature of
the earlier double monasteries, among both men
and women, and which, from the secular point of
view, gave to the Anglo-Saxon nunneries a place
not incomparable with the women's colleges of the

32 EARLY DOUBLE MONASTERIES

present day. The latest double monastery in
England was that of S. Bridget of Sion, near
Isleworth, on the Thames.

Reference has been made only to the more im-
portant early double monasteries in England ; but
there are others which may or may not come
under this category. Of these some are Whitern
in Galloway, Carlisle, Caistor in Northampton-
shire, Gloucester, Strenshall in Staffordshire, and
Lyminge in Kent.

It is uncertain whether Biscofsheim, in Ger-
many, under the abbess Lioba, was a double
monastery, but the arrangement is known to have
existed in Germany in the C8 and later. There
are also traces of them in Italy, and considerable
evidence for the same sort of system in Spain, but
time does not allow of dealing with them here.

Finally, the double monastery did not flourish
or find much favour in the more sophisticated
ages of Christianity, but generally followed an
outburst of religious enthusiasm in the earlier
centuries of the Faith. " It was," says Montalem-
bert, *' a peculiarity belonging to the youth of the
church, which, like youth in all circumstances,
w^ent through all the difficulties, dangers, and
storms of that age, and which in maturer times
gave way before a more practical, if less ideal,
outlook on life." *

^ Moines d'Occident. Tom. 5, page 320. Paris, i860

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